Simi man shoots 2 before killing self

STREET CLOSED—Senior Officer Josh Lorencz of the Simi Valley Police Department keeps watch over the scene of a shooting that occurred on Machado Street in Simi Valley on Tuesday morning. Photos by MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspapers Police are still trying to determine why a Simi Valley man shot and wounded his parents Tuesday morning before turning the gun on himself.

Timothy Trevathan, 52, of Simi Valley apparently shot his mother and stepfather before taking his own life.

Armando Chavez, senior deputy medical examiner with the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office, said Trevathan’s cause of death was gunshot wounds to the head. The death is listed as a suicide.

The shooting occurred just after 7 a.m. on June 4.

According to Sgt. Craig Dungan, the Simi Valley Police Department received a call for service regarding a family dispute in the 2700 block of Machado Street, a residential neighborhood located southeast of Sycamore Drive and E. Los Angeles Avenue.

CRIME SCENE—Family members leave the scene of the shooting with a Simi Valley detective. Police were dispatched to the home and, while responding, received reports that shots were fired.

Diane Trevathan-Ramirez, 73, was shot in the abdomen. She was transported to Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, where she was taken into surgery, a hospital spokesperson said. As of Wednesday, she was in the intensive care unit and listed in critical but stable condition.

Armando Ramirez, 65, was shot in the arm and the chest. He was also taken to Los Robles Hospital, where he was in serious but stable condition Wednesday.

The hospital said both of the shooting victims were reassessed Thursday and that Diane had been upgraded from critical to serious condition and that Armando had been upgraded from serious to good condition.

Detectives were at the Machado Street home late in the afternoon Tuesday, searching the residence and processing the scene to try to determine why the shooting occurred, said Lt. Joe May, supervisor of the department’s Detective Unit.

As of press time Thursday, police were still trying to piece together a motive.

“We still don’t know a motive and then, with the suspect being deceased, it’s something we may never find (out),” May said.

Trevathan used a .40-caliber handgun during the shooting, Lt. Stephanie Shannon said. Detectives are working to determine when and where he got the gun.

When asked if Trevathan was known to have been violent in the past, Shannon said that was still under investigation and that it was too early to say whether he had a history of violence or not.

However, when asked if police had previously responded to calls for service at the home regarding domestic issues, Shannon said the department had no prior contact with Trevathan.

A search of Ventura County Superior Court records did not turn up any criminal cases for Trevathan.